to feem right themfelves, will force others as to the Truth.

But most of all, they are to be revil'd and fham'd, who cry out with the diftinct Voice of notorious Hirelings, That if ye fettle not our Maintenance by Law, farewel the Gofpel; than which no⚫ thing can be utter'd more falfe, more ignominious, and I may fay, more blafphemous againft our Saviour; who hath promised, without this Condition, both his boly Spirit, and his own Prefence • with the Church to the World's End. Nothing more falfe (unless with their own Mouths they • condemn themselves for the unworthieft and moft mercenary of all other Minifters) by the • Experience of Three Hundred Years after Christ, and the Churches at this Day in France, Auftria, Polonia, and other Places, witneffing the contrary, under an adverfe Magiftrate, not a favourable Nothing more ignominious, levelling, or rather undervaluing, Chrift beneath Mahomet.

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For, if it must be thus, how can any Chrif tian object it to a Turk, That bis Religion ftands by Force only; and not justly fear from him this Reply, Yours both by Force and Money in the Judgment of your own Teachers. This is that which makes Atheists in the Land, whom they fo much • complain of: Not the Want of Maintenance, or Preachers, as they alledge, but the many Hirelings and Cheaters that have the Gospel in their • Hands: Hands that ftill crave and are never fatisfied. Likely Minifters indeed, to proclaim the Faith, or to exhort our Truft in God, when they themselves will not truft him to provide for them, in the Meffage whereon, they fay, he fent them, but threaten for Want of temporal Means to defert it; calling that Want of Means, which is nothing elfe, but the Want of

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• their

their own Faith; and would force us to pay the Hire of building our Faith to their covetous Incredulity.

Doubtlefs, if God only be He, who gives Mi-. nifters to his Church till the World's End; and through the whole Gofpel, never fent us for Mi-. nifters to the Schools of Philofophy, but rather. bids us Beware of fuch vain Deceit, Col. ii. 8.. (which the primitive Church, after two or three. Ages, not remembring, brought herself quickly. to Confufion.) If all the Faithful be now an bely and a Royal Priesthood, 1 Pet. ii. 5, 9. not excluded from the Difpenfation of Things holieft,. after free Election of the Church, and Impofition, of Hands, there will not want Minifters elected, out of all Sorts and Orders of Men, for the Gofpel makes no Difference from the Magiftrate himself, to the meanest Artificer, if God evidently favour him with fpiritual Gifts, as he can cafily, and oft has done, while thofe Batchelor Divines, and Doctors of the Tippet, have been paffed by.

Heretofore, in the firft Evangelical Times (and it were happy for Christendom if it were fo again) Minifters of the Golpel were by nothing elfe diftinguished from other Chriflians, but by their spiritual Knowledge, and Sanctity of Life, for which the Church elected them to be her • Teachers and Overfeers, though not thereby to feparate them from whatever Calling fhe then found them following befides, as the Example of • St. Paul declares, and the first Times of Chrifti⚫anity.

When once they affected to be called a Clergy, and became as it were a peculiar Tribe of Levites, a Party, a distinct Order in the Common, Wealth, bred up for Divines in Babling-fchools, and fed at the publick Coft, good for nothing elfe but what was good for nothing, they foon

C grew idle; that Idlenefs, with Fulness of Bread, begat Pride, and perpetual Contention with their

• Feeders, the defpifed Laity, through all Ages. ever fince, to the perverting of Religion, and • the Disturbance of all Christendom.

And we may confidently conclude, it never • will be otherwife, while they are thus upheld undepending on the Church, on which alone they anciently depended; and are by the Magiftrate publickly maintain'd, a numerous Faction of • indigent Perfons, crept for the most part out • of extreme Want and bad Nurture, claiming by divine Right and Freehold, the Tenth of our Eftates, to monopolize the Miniftry as their Peculiar, which is free and open to all able Christians, elected by any Church.

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Under this Pretence, exempt from all other Employment, and enriching themfelves on the Publick, they laft of all prove common Incendiaries, and exalt their Horns against the Magi• ftrate himself that maintains them, as the Priest • of Rome did foon after, against his Benefactor the Emperor; and the Prefbyters of late in Scotland. Of which bireling Crew, together with all the Mifchiefs, Diffentions, Troubles, Wars, meerly of their kindling, Christendom might foon • rid herself and be happy, if Chriftians would but know their own Dignity, their Liberty, their Adop•tion, and let it not be wonder'd, if I fay their Spiritual Priesthood, whereby they have all equally Accefs to any Minifterial Function, whenever called by their own Abilities and the Church, though they never came near Commencement or • University.

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But while Proteftants, to avoid the due Labour of underftanding their Religion, are content to lodge it in the Breaft, or rather in the Books of a Clergyman, and to take it thence by Scraps and • Mammocks,

Mammocks, as he difpenfes it in his Sunday's Dole, they will be always learning and never knowing always Infants, always either his Vaffals, as Lay-Priefts are to their Priefts, or at odds with him, as reformed Principles give them fome Light to be not wholly conformable, whence infinite Difturbances in the State, as they do, must needs follow.

Thus much I had to fay, and I fuppofe, what may be enough to them who are not avariciously bent otherwife, touching The likelieft Means to remove Hirelings cut of the Church; than which nothing can more conduce to Truth, to Peace, and all Happiness both in Church and State.

If I be not heard nor believed, the Event will bear me witness to have spoken Truth: And I in the mean while have borne my Witnefs, not out of Seafon, to the Church and to my Country."

Thefe, Reader, are the Sentiments of this learned Writer, concerning Tithes and Hireling Minifters, to which we fhall fubjoin fome Extracts from the Answer to the Country-Parfon's Plea, &c. by a Member of the Houfe of Commons, published in 1736; the Author whereof obferves,

T

HAT the Word PROPERTY was never lefs warrantably used, than it had been in

that Plea for Tithes.

The Tithes of the Clergy, fays be, are the Wages, which, as Servants of the Publick, they • receive from the Bounty of the Laws; and their Right in thofe Tithes arifing purely from the Grace, their Remedy in fuing for them muft depend wholly on the Will of the Legislative Power.

A Layman's Freehold accrues to him by Inheritance from his Father: A Churchman's Freehold accrues to him by the Gift of the Publick, I 3

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on fuch Conditions, as are or fhall be declared to qualify the Tenure of the Poffeffion, or the Recovery of any Rights incident to it.

By Non-compliance with thefe Conditions, as declared in a fingle Act of Parliament, i, e. the laft Uniformity-At, Thousands have been de prived in a Year, not only of their Tithes, but their Churches, with the high Approbation of all zealous Churchmen. And I muft fay, for the Reputation of the Sufferers in that Cafe, that as fenfible as they were of their Hardships, they had greater Modefty than to call that a Property which they knew to be only a Trust.

Nor would it have been endured; and much lefs, that knowing their Poffeffions to be held of this Publick Donation, they fhould have had the • Infolence to treat any Interest incident to their Poffeffion, as a matter of Property, not belonging to the Difpofition of Parliament. Every private Intereft, even Rights of Inheritance, must be governed by the Confideration of publick Intereft, Salus Populi Suprema Lex.

And, nothing can be more infolent or incon6 gruous, than to challenge the Donations of the Publick, as a Property not to be reformed for the • Convenience of the Publick.

No free State, no wife People, ever fuffered fuch a Doctrine to pafs unreproved. The Agrarian Laws of the ancient Republicks, in direc • Contradiction to it, ordained the equal Diftribution of Lands, and reformed the Grievance of exceffive Property, by limiting and reftraining the Poffeffions of their Subjects. The Laws of England are not without the ftrongest Declarations of the fame Wisdom in our Legiflators; the Reformers of our Church, to their Honour be it ever remember'd, were the Men who avowed this • Power

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